America’S Forgotten Caste: Free Blacks in Antebellum Virginia and North CarolinaFree blacks in antebellum America lived in a twilight world of oppressive laws and customs designed to suppress their mobility and their integration into civil society. Free blacks were free only to the extent of white tolerance in their community or town. They were at the mercy of the lowest members of the dominant race who could punish them on a whim. They were, in the words of a 19th century European traveler to America, "masterless slaves." Nonetheless, many successful and even prominent blacks emerged from the mire of oppressive laws and general public disdain to realize major achievements. Though excluded from the political process, from education, and from most professions they became preachers, teachers, missionaries, contractors, artisans, boat captains, and wealthy entrepreneurs. Members of this twilight social and legal class, which numbered nearly a half million by 1860, made great accomplishments against strong opposition in the first half of the 19th century. The history of America and of American slavery is woefully incomplete without their story. |
Contents
| 9 | |
| 17 | |
Chapter Two | 41 |
Chapter Three | 89 |
Chapter Four | 123 |
Chapter Five | 158 |
Postscript | 173 |
Acknowledgement | 179 |
Laws On Slavery In Virginia | 183 |
Important Dates | 185 |
Works Cited | 189 |
| 207 | |
| 219 | |
Other editions - View all
America's Forgotten Caste: Free Blacks in Antebellum Virginia and North Carolina Rodney Barfield No preview available - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
abolitionist acres African Americans antebellum Appomattox Aquilla artisans Assembly Ballagh Baptist became black and white black slave border cabinetmaking Cary Caswell County Christian church Clopton colonial color courts Day’s Dinwiddie County economic evangelical farm farmers father Free African Americans free blacks Free Negro free-black caste free-black population freed freedom furniture Greensville County Heinegg hereinafter cited hired Ibid immigration indentured servants Indian Jefferson John Day John Jr labor land laws legislature Liberia lived Lunsford Lane manumission Milton minister missionary mulatto Nat Turner North Carolina Northampton County number of free ofthe ofwhites Petersburg petition plantation planters political preached Presbyterian prominent races racial Raleigh religious restrictive revolutionary Richmond River slave owners slave society slaveholders slavery Slavery in Virginia slaves and free Slaves without Masters social South Southern Southside Virginia state’s status Stewart Thomas Day tobacco town trade white community white servants woman women